London wealth: One in 29 Londoners millionaires as UK capital moves up rankings

London is now the the fifth-wealthiest city in the world in terms of millionaires per capita.Reuters

London might be suffering from an unprecedented housing crisis and more people live below the poverty line than anywhere else in the UK, but one in every 29 Londoners is now a millionaire, a new study released on Tuesday (14 June 2016) shows.

According to data published by data provider WealthInsight, 3.4% London inhabitants are millionaires as the British capital moved from sixth to fifth in the rankings for the world's top cities per capita for people who, excluding the value of their main house, have net assets worth $1m (£0.7m) or more.

"London's financial strength has seen it rise through the rankings; it now boasts more millionaires per head than Frankfurt despite being the second-most populous city on the list after New York", said Oliver Williams of WealthInsight.

Unsurprisingly, Monaco tops the list as the glamorous micro-state is home to more millionaires per capita than any other city in the world, with almost one millionaire for every every inhabitant. The Swiss banking hubs of Zurich and Geneva complete the podium, with millionaire-per-inhabitant rates of 24.3% and 17.7% respectively.

"Although seven European cities make up the top 10, less than half of them are in the European Union," Williams said. "Zurich and Geneva, however, have both seen a fall in their millionaire densities as outside pressures exert themselves on the Swiss private banking industry."

With a millionaire in every 21 inhabitants New York just pipped London to fourth spot, while Oslo, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Singapore, and Amsterdam completing the top 10.